1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to knit wrappable protective textile sleeves for protecting elongate members.
2. Related Art
It is known to utilize textile sleeves to protect elongate members from a variety of external environmental conditions, including braided, knit or woven textile sleeves. Knit sleeves can either be formed having a seamless, tubular wall, or an open, wrappable wall having opposite lengthwise extending edges configured to overlap one another. Wrappable knit sleeves are typically constructed with relatively stiff weft monofilament yarns along the full, uninterrupted length of the sleeve (also referred to as fill yarns) that extend widthwise, circumferentially about the wall to provide the sleeve with high hoop strength, thereby inhibiting the sleeve from being crushed or flattened. Unfortunately, although knit sleeves having stiff weft yarns attain high hoop strength, they have limited flexibility along their length, thereby inhibiting the ability to route the sleeves about circuitous, meandering paths, and if bent too much, cause the sleeve wall to open along a seam between the overlapping edges and/or kink. In some cases, in order to provide a more flexible sleeve when increased flexibility is necessary to route the sleeve over a meandering path, knit wrappable sleeves are fabricated along their entire, uninterrupted length from multifilament weft yarns having an increased flexibility, or entirely from very fine, small diameter weft monofilaments; however, these sleeves, although having an increased flexibility, suffer from having a greatly reduced hoop strength, and thus, are prone to being easily crushed or flattened in use, thereby subjecting the elongate members being protected therein to damage.
Woven sleeves can be similarly constructed as discussed above, namely, including either relatively stiff weft monofilament yarns, or smaller, more flexible monofilament yarns, or more flexible multifilament yarns, however, the same drawbacks are encountered as discussed above, namely, having a high hoop strength with greatly limited flexibility, or an increased flexibility with a greatly reduced hoop strength. In addition, in weaving constructions, if the weft yarn is laid in, also referred to as inserted, the construction is less stable in that the laid in weft yarn is generally free to move, both relative to one another and to the warp yarn. As such, both the construction process can become complicated as a result of yarns having moved from their intended position, and the end product can have unintended, undesirable openings between yarns, thereby resulting in a less than optimal coverage being provided to the enclosed members being protected.
Accordingly, what is needed is a textile sleeve that combines the benefits of a high hoop strength and flexibility, thereby providing protection against being crushed, while at the same time, being flexible and non-kinking when routed over circuitous, meandering paths, including around corners of 90 degrees or more. Furthermore, what is needed is a sleeve that maintains structural integrity throughout the entire manufacturing process, while also having yarns that remain in their intended position to provide optimal protective coverage, in use.